Examine the role of political protest in a democracy. (Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for History and Social Studies) [8.T4.12]
FOCUS QUESTION: What are the different ways that political protest plays a role in democracy?
Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Rosa Parks being fingerprinted by Deputy Sheriff D.H. Lackey after being arrested for as a leader of a boycott of public transportation, Montgomery, Alabama, February 1956 | Public domain photograph from The Plain Dealer newspaper
The right to protest is essential in a democracy. It is a means for people to express dissatisfaction with current situations and assert demands for social, political, and economic change. Protests make change happen and throughout the course of United States history it has taken sustained protests over long periods of time to bring about substantive change in governmental policies and the lives of people. Protest takes political courage as well, the focal point of Standard 4.11 in this book.
The United States emerged from American protests against England's colonial rule. Founded in 1765, the Sons of Liberty and the Daughters of Liberty organized protests against what they considered to be unfair British laws. In 1770, the Boston Massacre happened when British troops fired on protestors. Then, there was the Boston Tea Party (December 16, 1773) when 60 Massachusetts colonists dumped 342 chests of tea—enough to make 19 million cups—into Boston Harbor. In 1775, there were armed skirmishes between colonists and British soldiers at Lexington and Concord. Three years later in the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson affirmed the importance of protest when he wrote:
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." (National Archives)
Many of the most impactful events in United States history have been political protests:
In 1848, women activists organized the Seneca Falls Convention and issued the Declaration of Sentiments, a foundational document in the struggle for women's rights and equality.
In 1932, the federal government sent troops using tear gas and bayonets against the Bonus Army marchers (World War I veterans), many of whom were out of work because of the Depression, who had come to Washington, D.C. to protest having not received promised bonuses for serving in the war. It took four years for them to get their money.
In 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, begun by Rosa Parks and activists that included Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., changed the course of the Civil Rights Movement, inspiring the 1960 Greensboro and Nashville sit-ins, the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the 1965 March on Selma and Bloody Sunday, and many more protests that led to legislation and change for African Americans.
Other protests in recent U.S. history include the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations of the 1960s and early 1970s, Native American sovereignty actions including the occupation of Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, the Stonewall Riots, the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in 2011, and School Strikes for Climate in 2019 ("A Recent History of Protest in America," The New York Times, June 28, 2020, p. 4)
Black Lives Matter protests, beginning in May 2020, saw millions of people in more than 550 cities and towns across the nation engage in weeks of marches and demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, by Minneapolis, Minnesota police officers on May 25, and the earlier March 13 fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor by Louisville, Kentucky police officers.
Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Boston protest against police brutality following the killing of George Floyd | "Boston George Floyd Protest, Boston Common" by GorillaWarfare
As people marched in the streets and in some places encountered law enforcement and National Guard troops firing tear gas and rubber bullets, the nation witnessed a remarkable set of statements about the death of George Floyd, the right to peaceful protest, and the need for racial justice, including voices from across the political spectrum:
By the beginning of July, reported the New York Times, between 15 to 26 million people had participated in the protests, as shown on this interactive map of George Floyd/Black Lives Matter protests. These turnout numbers would make this the largest protest participation movement in the country's history.
How has political protest driven social and political change in U.S. history? The modules for this standard explore this question from three distinct standpoints: the doctrine of civil disobedience; examples of impactful marches and demonstrations; and how activists can use books and music to express ideas for change.
4.12.1 INVESTIGATE: Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Doctrine of Nonviolent Protest and Civil Disobedience
Political protest is an action or a series of actions by a group of people who seek to: 1) express their disapproval of current conditions, 2) address injustices in the political system, and 3) advocate for changes in government or business policies.
There are two main forms of political protest — nonviolent and violent. Nonviolent protests involve using peaceful methods to bring about political change such as petitions, strikes, boycotts, rallies, and marches. Violent protests involve using aggressive methods to try to bring about political change, such as acts of terrorism, destruction of property, bodily harm, and riots.
The Indian independence leader Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi was one of history's most famous proponents of nonviolent protest and resistance, what is widely known as Civil Disobedience (Civil Disobedience Defined, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Gandhi believed violence was a clumsy weapon that created far more problems than it solved. Gandhi held that by refusing to rebel violently against British oppression, native Indians would expose the colonists as the real savages who were waging warfare against a peaceable and innocent community.
Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): Studio photograph of Mohandas K. Gandhi, London, 1931 | Public domain
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. adopted nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience as a central strategy for the post-World War II African American Civil Rights Movement. Nonviolence, he said, "is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals." He laid out Six Principles of Nonviolence. Read more about King's philosophy in his 1957 article Nonviolence and Racial Justice. Read Walden by Henry David Thoreau and Antigone by Sophocles for additional perspectives on civil disobedience.
Suggested Learning Activities
Post your dream
Martin Luther King said "I have a dream that one day..."
What is your dream? Post a written note or create a meme expressing your dream for change and a better world.
Identify an issue or problem in your school or community. How can it be approached nonviolently?
Create a protest sketchnote
Use wiki pages for information to investigate the role of protest and non-violent civil disobedience in one of the following social or political movements in U.S. history.
4.12.2 UNCOVER: Three Historical Examples of Political Protest
4.12.2.1 The Stonewall Uprising, June 28, 1969
In early summer 1969, at the Stonewall bar in New York City, tensions between police and LGBTQIA patrons reached a boiling point. Members of the gay community, tired of being judged, ridiculed, and imprisoned (at the time, it was illegal to be gay), rose up against police harassment and brutality.
A raid on the Stonewall bar set off six days of violent confrontations between gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals and police officers. What has become known as the Stonewall Uprising or the Stonewall Riots ignited the gay rights movement (The Stonewall Riot and Its Aftermath).
Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): This button commemorates the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, which took place in 1969. The riots erupted following a police raid targeting the gay community on June 28 at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village area of New York City | "Stonewall 25th anniversary button" by Minnesota Historical Society.
Thirty years later, on June 6, 2019, the New York City Police Commissioner James O'Neill formally apologized for police actions during the Stonewall Uprising. Commissioner O'Neill said that "the actions taken by the NYPD were wrong."There is more information about gay rights activism at a resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki page on The Stonewall Uprising.
Suggested Learning Activities
Compare and contrast
Educators and historians use different terms when referring to the Stonewall events. The Zinn Education Project and the Stanford History Education Group have called them the Stonewall Riots, while the Anti-Defamation League and the PBS Learning Media have referred to the Stonewall Uprising.
Which term would you use to characterize the events, and why would you use that term?
Assess the impact
The New York Times called Stonewall a turning point for the gay civil rights movement.
Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Workers' Memorial Day poster: "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones | Image by the United States Department of Labor, public domain
In her 1903 March of the Mill Children, Mother Jones walked nearly 100 miles in three weeks from the city of Philadelphia to the Long Island home of President Teddy Roosevelt, but Roosevelt refused to see them or respond directly to her demands for a reduced 55-hour workweek and the elimination of night work by women and children.
Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): A young girl in the textile mill where she works as a spinner | "Young Girl in a Mill, 1908" by Lewis W. Hine
Learning Objectives
Create a child labor timeline
Child Labor in U.S. History, University of Iowa Labor Center
4.12.2.3 Dakota Access Pipeline Standing Rock Sioux Uprising
In 2016, a company called Energy Transfer Partners sought permission to build the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) through Bismarck, North Dakota. The pipeline would carry fracked shale oil from the Bakken Oil fields located in parts of Montana, North Dakota, and Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. Bismarck, a predominantly White city, rejected the Energy Transfer Partners proposal. so the company decided to reroute the pipeline through Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's reservation lands.
Based on the 1851 & 1868 Fort Laramie Treaties, the land on which the Dakota Access Pipeline was to be constructed was sovereign territory of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation. However, the federal government chose not to recognize the 1851 Treaty. Instead, the United States Army Corps of Engineers claimed that the land was theirs and the pipeline could be built through it.
As part of the project plan, the pipeline was to go underneath Lake Oahe—the main source of drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and a main tributary of the Missouri River. This was what became the rallying cry of the members of the Standing Rock Sioux as they mobilized against the pipeline.
Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\): Letters from children at Standing Rock Community High School during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests | Image from Becker1999 on Flickr
The protests delayed the pipeline project until the Trump Administration gave clearance for the project to proceed in 2017. The pipeline was completed in April 2017. There is more information at a resourcesforhistoryteachers wiki page on the DAPL Standing Rock Sioux Uprising (2016-2017).
Suggested Learning Activities
Assess the impact
In what ways does the #NoDAPL Struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline resemble long standing legacies of oppression toward Native peoples?\(^*\)
Was the fight against DAPL a failure? In what ways was it a success?\(^*\)
What does it mean to support the rights of indigenous peoples in the 21st century?\(^*\)
\(^*\) Questions submitted by Christopher Oo
Online Resources for Standing Rock Pipeline Uprising
4.12.3 ENGAGE: Can Books and Music Express Political Protest?
Anti-War Literature and Protest Music are ways for writers and musical artists to convey their views of society and their visions for change.
Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\): A street of Dresden, Germany, following Allied firebombing in World War II. Dresden was the setting for Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse 5 | "Street Scene in Dresden, Germany (1945)" by Roger and Renate Rössing
Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\): Billie Holiday recorded the song "Strange Fruit" in 1939 to protest violence and racism against African Americans | Portrait of Billie Holiday between 1946 to 1948, by William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress
Protest music conveys ideas and emotions in ways that change minds and provoke actions. From Billie Holiday singing the song "Strange Fruit", which was named song of the century by Time magazine in 1999, to contemporary rap and hip-hop artists, music is a powerful force for change. The 2015 song "Alright" by Kendrick Lamar expresses his protest against police violence toward Black people. Alicia Keys's 2020 song "Perfect Way to Die" was inspired by the killings of Mike Brown and Sandra Bland.
Rap artists DaBaby, Rapsody, Lil Baby, Beyonce, and Meek Mill, among others, also wrote searing songs embracing the Black Lives Matter Movement. "The Bigger Picture" by Lil Baby became the most streamed protest song following the death of George Floyd.
Protest music is widely associated with the decade of the 1960s. Young people took to the streets to protest against the war in Vietnam and for civil rights for African Americans at home. Rock 'n' roll music was a constant soundtrack for these protests; its rhythm and beat defied convention and encouraged open expression of ideas and emotions. Yet rock 'n' roll music, made famous by White artists like Elvis Presley, had its origins in soul music and rhythm and blues performed by Black musicians and singers, the contributions of whom have been lost or neglected by the history books. Students today do not know about the genre-breaking work of artists like Little Richard, Bo Diddley, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Chuck Berry and more. Watch here as Big Mama Thorton performs the song "Hound Dog" in 1971.
You can discover a wide range of music expressing social themes on American Anthem, an NPR series about music and change.
Media Literacy Connections: Music as Protest Art
From the American Revolutionary era to the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, music has been at the center of expressing protest and speaking to social unrest. "Yankee Doodle" is widely regarded as the first American protest song, though it was originally written by British soldiers to mock the Americans and then adopted by the colonists as a rallying song for revolution. "Free America" was another one of the first protest songs, written by Joseph Warren, the man who enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes to spread the alarm that the British were coming on April 18, 1775.
In the current era, Black artists are speaking aggressively against White racism through music.
In these activities, you will remix lyrics from famous protest songs in U.S. history to create your own protest piece related to an issue you care about deeply. Then, you will analyze a political protest song and explore how it is used in social media today.
Political protests can be both peaceful and violent. INVESTIGATE examined the philosophy of civil disobedience of Mohandas Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, and Martin Luther King, Jr. to demonstrate how nonviolent protests can generate lasting change. UNCOVERlooked at the labor activist Mother Jones and the March of the Mill Children, the Stonewall Uprising, and the Standing Rock Pipeline Protest as impactful events in struggles for the rights of children, LGBTQIA people, and Native Americans. ENGAGE asked how anti-war literature and protest songs serve as ways for people to express their ideas for change.
